Sometimes, Bega Metzner’s biggest challenge isn’t convincing filmmakers to shoot movies among the stunning red rocks near Moab’s national parks. Sometimes, the biggest challenge is convincing them the place is even real.
“Sometimes they just don’t even believe that this place is real,” said Metzner, the director of the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission. “My most recent ad says ‘Come see it with your own eyes. It’s real,’ because people assume that it’s all green screen.”
In advance of Moab’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival on September 27, we’re looking at the storied history of film in southeastern Utah. The region’s stunning desert landscapes have starred in dozens of flicks over the decades, from box-office hits to punk horror films.
“There’s nothing not to fall in love with here,” said Metzner.
Nearly a century of film
Southeastern Utah’s national parks, monuments, and surrounding lands have long starred in film, starting in the 1930s when John Wayne helped popularize the stunning landscape among Western audiences.
The film commission started in 1949, when locals recognized that film productions “need facilitation,” in Metzner’s words. She connects crews with everything they need, from filming locations and permits and hotel rooms and local professionals.
“They need somebody who has knowledge and expertise for the land use here,” Metzner said. “So it’s helping facilitate this stretch of incredible, iconic land in Grand and San Juan counties and helping with whatever the needs are — food, transportation, road work, extras, talent.”
Today, the film commission is the longest continuously running film commission in the world. It has shepherded along dozens of flicks filming from Monument Valley in the south to Moab in the north, with several even filmed in the national parks themselves.
See the vistas from iconic movies
One of the most famous movies filmed in the national parks is 1991’s “Thelma and Louise,” a drama following two friends who become fugitives while on a road trip across the American West.
The film includes shots of Courthouse Towers in Arches National park. Its iconic closing scene – of a 1996 Ford Thunderbird plunging off desert cliffs occurred below Dead Horse Point State Park, near Canyonlands National Park. However, in the film the scene was ostensibly in the Grand Canyon.
It’s common for southeastern Utah to double for other places, Metzner said, especially given its landscape diversity.
“The Moab area … is somewhat changeable and multidirectional,” she said. “I like to tell people about the [La Sal Mountains] … we have aspens and we have lakes and rivers up there, and we have a river down here.”
Other notable movies filmed in the parks include “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1988), “City Slickers II” (1994), and “The Incredible Hulk” (2003). While these movies span a broad range of genres, they all share the inspiring vistas that continue to enamor visitors today.
“It’s just going back to the fact that it actually is real,” said Metzner. “Like, ‘Where on earth is that? I want to see that.’ I’ve said that before, too … You can’t get more different than this.”
Landscapes that are hard not to love
While southeastern Utah’s unique landscapes can always inspire wonder, Metzner said she realizes it most when she’s out with filmmakers who are there for the first time.
“I get to see it through their eyes in this fresh way, where we’re driving down the road and they’re like, ‘Stop, I need to take a picture,’” she recounted. “And I say, ‘We haven’t even driven five minutes yet.’ Then we drive another five and they’re like, ‘Stop, I need to take a picture.’ … Then I say, ‘Okay … just wait till we turn around.’”
But it’s not just in the turnaround that the desert bares its infinite variety. It’s coming back to the same place day after day, seeing red cliffs and sandstone mesas transform with the shifting of the light.
“Every day the light is different and the clouds are different and the contrast is different,” Metzner said. “And if there’s smoke in the air, it’s this kind of crazy flat look. And when the sun sets and the sun rises, the colors just change. And when there’s snow on the red rocks, it’s a whole other vision.”
“No matter how many hundreds of movies that have filmed here,” she said, “it’s never going to look the same way twice.”
Films that celebrate the landscape — and protect the parks
If you haven’t yet snagged your free tickets to Moab’s free Wild & Scenic Film Festival, now’s the time!
The September 27 festival will feature a powerful lineup of award-winning short films that celebrate the beauty of the natural world and the people who protect it. These stories will leave you energized, moved, and motivated to make a difference.
In addition, donating during the event will help Friends of Arches and Canyonlands Parks preserve our national parks so future generations can experience the landscapes that have so entranced generations of filmmakers.
